In a letter to the poetess Anna Seward on 30
November 1802, Walter Scott surveyed the various
methods of publication open to a budding author,
including one that was definitely not suited to
himself:

The mode of publishing by subscription is one
which in itself can carry nothing degrading &
which in many of the more extensive & high
priced publications is perhaps essentially necessary.
Still however it is asking the public to become
bound to pay for what they have not seen, &
carries with it if not the reality at least the
appearance of personal solicitation & personal
obligation. [1]

Scott was in a buoyant mood, having just sold
the copyright of his Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border for £500, and was keen to impress on
Seward that he for one was unlikely ever to indulge
in the vanity of affecting to despise literary
profit. As he started so he proceeded, achieving
sums through the sale of his poems huge enough
to purchase and start rebuilding Abbotsford, and
then with fiction turning to the alternative method
of taking half profits on editions (where the
rake-off was proportionately larger, partly through
the insistence that the printing be done by his
own firm). Throughout his life Scott would only
be on one side of the subscription fence. In 1817
we find him soliciting subscriptions from the
great and good for the fifth edition of James
Hogg’s poem The Queen’s Wake, though it
is impossible to think of a similar engagement
in support of ‘poor Hogg’ as a novelist. [2]
Scott does however appear as one of the ‘benefactors’
in Mrs Frederick Layton’s Spanish Tales
(1816), whose Preface pointed to a new respectability
gained by fiction since the days of Wollstonecraftian
heroines. [3]
In 1824, he appears among a mass subscription
by the Scottish legal establishment to Adolphe
and Selanie, by Henri Dubois, self-styled
‘teacher of French language’ in Edinburgh. Dubois
in his Preface observed that he had served as
an officer in the French Imperial army, and (somewhat
disingenuously, it would seem) expressed anxiety
that this might affect the reception in Britain;
though one can only imagine this gave extra piquancy
for Scott himself, just about to embark on his
mammoth Life of Napoleon. Dubois popped
up again in London four years later with another
subscription title, The History of a French
Dagger, this time describing himself as ‘late
surgeon of Cavalry in the Imperial Army’. His
dedicatory ‘To my Subscribers’ there unabashedly
acknowledges ‘pecuniary profit’ as a motive (an
interesting echo of Scott twenty years earlier),
[4]
and a list of some 320 subscribers, mainly from
London addresses and many of them surgeons, indicates
that Dubois successfully pulled off the feat of
making a killing in both Edinburgh and London.

Another perspective
is added if we shift to a small village in Hampshire,
where at an early stage Jane Austen caught sight
of the subscription method as a way of bringing
female novelists into the public eye. ‘Miss J.
Austen, Steventon’ appears as one of 1058 subscribers
in the list prefixed to Frances Burney’s Camilla
(1796). Tradition has it that Jane Austen was
dependent on her father for the guinea fee, but,
as I have argued elsewhere, [5]
news of the subscription probably came through
her maternal relations—the vicar at Great Bookham,
where Burney completed the novel, was the Revd
Samuel Cooke, Jane Austen’s godfather, whose wife
Cassandra (née Leigh) was a cousin of Jane Austen’s
mother (also born Cassandra Leigh). In this way
could subscription lists grow by spreading through
the grid of gentry society. Jane Austen almost
certainly must have fantasised about such a list
emanating outwards from herself, and her First
Impressions was begun only three months after
Camilla’s appearance in July 1796. In the
event, as we know, the Revd Austen wrote directly
to Cadell and Davies, the publishers, and this
early version of Pride and Prejudice got
no further. Launching a subscription from a country
rectory was a different matter from one sponsored
by the Queen’s court, and besides there was no
way in which a young woman in the arms of a protective
family could claim victim status (pace
some Austenian feminist interpretations). Like
Scott, though in their own way, the Austens stayed
firmly on the donor side of subscription fence.
‘Miss Austen, Steventon, near Overton’ appears
on the subscription list in The Traditions
(1795), written by the young Mary Sherwood, who,
like Jane and her elder sister Cassandra, had
been a pupil at the Abbey School in Reading. [6]
The Austen family in Kent—brother Edward, his
wife, and Mrs Knight (Edward’s patroness)—also
subscribed to a now extremely rare novel, Wareham
Priory (1799), along with more than 280 other
subscribers, many of them connected with militia
forces stationed in SE England to counter a threatened
French invasion. Jane Austen herself waited another
twelve years to publish, and then did so privately
at her own risk; though these interventions in
subscription probably gave her a useful early
glimpse of the public readership now available
for fiction.

As the cases of
Austen and Scott indicate, there were a number
of factors militating against the use of the subscription
method by authors, not least in the case of fiction,
which some modern commentators have characterised
as the most commercial form of publication in
the period. Publishers, too, such as William Lane
of the Minerva Press, were unlikely to see much
advantage in the small guaranteed sale subscription
usually offered, compared with a quick purchase
of the copyright and an unimpeded assault on the
open market. Those authors who did venture forth
on their own met numerous pitfalls on the way,
as their subscriptions lists and accompanying
preliminaries frequently tell. Solicitation could
mean public humiliation; subscribers were sometimes
quicker to sign up than to pay; delays occasionally
left the projector facing rising costs for paper
and print. Some projects evidently never got off
the ground; [7]
while other disappointed (especially male) novelists
ended up by writing works which noisily announced
their status as ‘not a subscription novel’. [8]
The low standing of fiction, notably earlier in
our period, was also evidently an impediment;
and it is noticeable that both Charlotte Smith
and Mary Robinson benefited by large subscriptions
to their poetry, but always published their fiction
commercially. Even so the method had its advantage
in providing a way for novice authors to test
the water, especially at a time when large numbers
of women, often without direct means of approaching
the London trade, were entering the genre. Provincial
writers could use a list as a lever with a local
bookseller, who then in turn might contact his
London publishing connection. The novel also lost
some of its leper status during a few heady years
in the later 1790s, a premium time for subscription
novels, and then again more generally with the
influence of the moral evangelicals and of Scott
from the mid-1810s.

Even so one would
be hard put to claim any significant advance from
the available guides to subscription literature
as a whole. F. J. G. Robinson and P. J. Wallis’s
Book Subscription Lists (1975), a pioneering
tool in the sociology of readership, notes for
example in its Introduction a shift during the
later eighteenth century to smaller texts published
by subscription, but does not specify fiction.
[9]
Scanning the annual lists in this work, novels
of any kind seem few and far between: I counted
15 roughly classifiable as fiction up to 1780,
a single novel in the 1780s, and then a small
flurry of nine more in the 1790s. This paucity,
however, was not substantiated by my own experience
when embarking on a study of novel production
between 1780 and 1830 approaching twenty-five
years ago. Work in the Bristol University Library’s
Early Novels Collection led to several titles,
with considerable lists, which had not been included
in Robinson and Wallis: Burton-Wood (1783),
with 212 subscribers; The Contradiction
(1796), by the Revd William Cole, with 237 subscribers;
and Wareham Priory, with its 287 subscribers.
New titles also came into view with the progress
of the Eighteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue
(ESTC), and I remember how a trial query, requested
at a Conference held to publicise that project,
threw up five more novels of whose subscription
status I had been unaware. These and further titles
were subsequently included in Eighteenth-Century
Subscription Lists: A Check-List, compiled
by R. C. Alston and others, [10]
though like its electronic base this does not
offer generic guidelines.

From such sources
it was possible by 1987 to build up and report
on a file of some 25 subscription novels between
1780 and 1799 inclusive, 20 of these in the 1790s,
16 bulked between 1795 and 1799 (representing
it seemed about 5 per cent of the output of fiction).
[11]
In following years more came into view, extending
this particular file to 32: with 6 titles belonging
to the 1780s, and the remainder to the 1790s.
It should be added, however, that these totals
for titles from the pre-1800 years (as described
in the following Checklist) clearly underestimate
the full number of works with lists. In fact,
volume one of The English Novel 1770–1829
(2000) has disclosed a further 8 such titles belonging
to the 1780s and an additional 28 in the 1790s,
suggesting that the true sum-total for new novels
with subscription lists between 1780 and 1799
is as high as 68 titles. [12]

With the period
1800–29 the results have been more spectacular
still. When writing in 1987 I reported ‘an immediate
drop’ of subscription novels with the new century,
stating that in using similar means of retrieval
it had only been possible to find a handful of
relevant titles. [13]
It has since become clear that this was more a
reflection of the inadequacy of sources
after 1800 than a true representation of the situation.
This changing viewpoint came largely through first-hand
work on the Corvey collection, while actively
compiling the second volume of The English
Novel 1770–1829, combined with investigations
in a number of other leading collections (including
those at Aberdeen University, the Houghton Library
at Harvard, the Beinecke at Yale University, the
University of Illinois at Urbana, and the Special
Collections Department in the University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA) Library). As a result it has
been possible to trace a further 70 novels with
subscription lists published 1800–29 inclusive:
comprising 34 titles in the 1800s, 25 in the 1810s,
and 11 in the 1820s. Comparison with existing
records of subscription lists makes this tally
appear especially spectacular, even taking into
account the more recently-published ‘Extended
Supplement’ to Book Subscription Lists,
completed by Ruth Wallis. [14]
Of the 70 discovered just 7 were picked up by
the original 1975 Guide; to which the new
Supplement adds a further 11, only occasionally
supplying details of numbers of subscribers, total
copies, and female subscribers. It is more than
likely too that this new grand total still underestimates
the number of novels whose publication was aided
by subscription. Some copies of a title can be
found lacking a list that subsequently appears
in another copy discovered in a different source.
[15]
In other cases lists were gathered by authors
and then not attached to any of the copies distributed,
giving these titles (not included in the present
survey) a kind of half-way status between subscription
and commercial fiction. [16]

The overall result
is a collection of materials presently relating
to over one hundred subscription novels between
1780 and 1829 inclusive, all seen at first hand,
and the Checklist of titles appended attempts
to provide particular information about their
publication history and individual significance.
Each entry there begins with details of title,
authorship and imprint, based on actual title-pages,
albeit with an element of standardisation (e.g.
publisher’s addresses are usually omitted). In
bold is then given a breakdown of the lists, in
the following order: number of male subscribers
(M); number of female subscribers (F);
gender-unidentifed subscribers (U); sum
total of subscriptions (S); additional
copies (A); total number of copies subscribed
(T). This line is completed with the name
of the holding library where the copy was seen
(BL for British Library, and so on). Three separate
lines after this then record: i) main locations
of subscribers as evident or inferable from the
lists; ii) the social composition of the lists,
again insofar as this can be deduced; iii) an
indication of type (say Gothic or Sentimental),
and, where relevant, special features (such as
reference to the French Revolution). After this
a general Notes field gives details concerning
prefatory matter, the positioning of the lists,
etc., on an optional basis. Entries are concluded,
where appropriate, with information concerning
in-period further editions published in mainland
Britain. It will be noticed that these, when they
occur, not uncommonly prove to be reissues by
other publishers, notably the Minerva Press, usually
made up from the residue of copies left unsold
after the original subscription, with replacement
title-pages inserted.

A breakdown of
the entries based on authorship shows a large
proportion of female as opposed to male subscription
novels: 75 novels by women, 23 by men, and 4 gender-unknown.
This division embraces a number of gender-implied
titles (‘By a Lady’, ‘By a Bengal Officer’, etc.),
and also takes on board information found in prefaces
(where an author, though absent on the title-page,
might sign his/her name); it also involves prioritising
translators over original foreign authors. The
same preponderance is found within most decades:
all six titles in the 1780s being written by women;
followed by a proportion of 18 female- to 7 male-authored
novels in the 1790s; 27 to 6 in the 1800s; and
19 to 5 in the 1810s; with the 1820s alone showing
a more even balance (5 apiece). No doubt this
reflects a larger movement towards female authorship
of fiction, beginning in the later 1780s and sustaining
itself until at least the mid-1810s; but the prevalence
of women authors in the case of subscription novels
is striking, and in general terms significantly
exceeds the ascertainable gender balance relating
to output generally. Owing to the circumstances
of subscription, authors could hardly hide their
identity; whereas in the case of commercial fiction
anonymity was always an option—one result of this
being the resilient body of unidentified anonymous
works which helps make gender analysis more problematic
across the full range of fiction writing.

Subscription fiction,
through prefatory materials such as Dedications
and Addresses to the subscribers, also provides
an unusually full picture of the circumstances
underlying authorship. Of the female-authored
novels, more than half include personal dedications,
all but a handful to other women, the bulk of
these being members of the royal family or aristocratic.
The incidences of this if anything are higher
in the earlier period, with a greater inclination
evident later to make more general addresses to
the subscribers and sometimes to the public at
large. One common factor is a tendency to foreground
the plight/tremulousness/abjectness of the authoress.
A prevalent type here is the vulnerable young
lady at the outset of her literary career. This
is actually inscribed in the title in some cases
(as in Entry 3, which thus signals ‘the first
literary production of a young lady’; or in Entry
9, ‘the first literary attempt of a young lady’).
Others used their Prefaces to the same purpose:
that to Mrs Yeates’s Eliza (1800: Entry
35), presents its author as ‘tremblingly alive
to all the fears which the first attempt naturally
excites’ (I, [v]); while
Mrs A. Duncombe’s ‘To the Public’, in The Village
Gentleman, and the Attorney at Law (1808:
Entry 65) excuses a number faults, including an
absence of chapter divisions, on account of the
novel’s representing a ‘first offering to the
World’. [17]
In fact, in a large number of cases (some 30 as
far as can be ascertained) the first attempt proved
to be the last. Of course there are strong exceptions
here—the most striking perhaps being Sarah Wilkinson,
whose The Thatched Cottage (1806: Entry
56) generated funds for the purchase of a library,
the launching-pad for more novels and a multitude
of chapbook condensations. [18]

Another interesting
case is provided by Eliza Parsons’ The History
of Miss Meredith (1790: Entry 8), the first
of what was to prove a chain of novels, but whose
Preface nevertheless expresses ‘trembling anxiety’
at first facing the public eye. Mrs Parsons, who
had been left destitute with eight children to
support, is representative of another common female
type in subscription fiction: the widowed/separated
woman or bereft daughter, with a dependent family.
Under this heading might be included one (professedly
at least) male-authored novel: Munster Abbey
(1797: Entry 21), ‘by Sir Samuel Egerton Leigh’,
which attracted the largest number of subscribers
among those novels listed, mostly from the residential
squares of Edinburgh and London. Its putative
author, a scion of a noble family (and remotely
connected with the Austen Leighs), had died at
an early age (twenty-seven) in the Edinburgh New
Town. In the ‘Advertisement’ Lady Leigh stated
that the novel had been found among her deceased
husband’s papers; but since an earlier announcement
in the Edinburgh papers refers to its having been
left uncompleted, [19]
one wonders whether at least some of the story,
including its unrealistically sunny end, actually
came from the widow herself. More spectacularly
bereft, in the following year, was Emily Clark,
styled in the title of her Ianthé (1798:
Entry 24) as ‘grand-daughter of the late Colonel
Frederick, son of Theodore, King of Corsica’.
In her ‘Introduction’ the authoress outlines a
somewhat shaky royal ancestry, and alludes briefly
to the ‘melancholy fate’ of her father. Colonel
Frederick had shot himself in the porch of Westminster
Abbey, having spent time on the Continent trying
to raise money for the Prince of Wales and his
brothers. The royal princes head the subscription
list, followed by an unusually motley crew of
other subscribers. The work was published ‘for
the author’ by the fashionable West End publishers
Hookham and Carpenter, who at the end of the work
placed an advert for ‘Suicide Rejected, an Elegy
[…] to which is prefixed A Moral Discourse against
Suicide’, ‘published for the benefit of Mrs Clark
and her childen’. Surviving records of the publishers’
transactions indicate that ultimately Mrs Clark
made only a pound from Ianthé. [20]

Later works in
the Checklist give a general impression of older,
sadder women soliciting subscriptions, at least
compared with the tremulous young ladies of the
1780s. In the Introduction to her The Prior
Claim (1813: Entry 78), Mrs Iliff offered
a dialogue between allegorical figures (Benevolence,
Prudery, etc.) concerning the suitability of subscription
fiction for a woman wishing to provide for her
family, in which the full ghastliness of having
to ply for support is at points nakedly exposed.
Just as painful to read, though written from a
different vantage point, are the preliminaries
to Contrast (1828: Entry 99), by Regina
Maria Roche, a veteran (but now sadly out-of-touch)
author, whose Children of Abbey (1796)
was arguably the most commercially successful
circulating library novel of the Romantic period.
In her Preface (I, [xii]–xv)
Roche describes the subscription (by circular)
as ‘a last resource’, thanks her ‘benevolent Subscribers’
for their indulgence, and yet (like other later
novelists) appears apprehensive of a less favourable
reaction from the general public (‘the majority
of her readers’).

It is more difficult
to draw conclusions about male subscription novelists,
partly because of the relative smallness of the
instances provided, partly because of the more
resistant positions struck by some of these authors
in preliminary matter. Proportionately fewer (8
noted out of 23) made direct dedications, 5 to
male and 3 to female sponsors. The familiar tropes
of female dependency are likewise hard to find
even in parallel forms. Novice authorship is never
openly signalled, while the need to look after
family dependents is only obtrusive in one clear
case. Joseph Wildman’s The Force of Prejudice
(1799: Entry 29) describes in its Preface the
death of a father and the author’s need to support
his mother, and thanks Mrs Crespigny for help
with the subscription. Mrs Champion de Crespigny
(1748?–1812), a novelist herself and an ubiquitous
presence in lists of this period, helped bring
in some 750 subscriptions, mainly from London
residential addresses, the third largest tally
found. [21]
Other male authors struck attitudes of relative
unconcern or even belligerence. In a ‘Preface
to the General Reader’ to his The Contradiction
(1796: Entry 14), the Revd William Cole—only half-facetiously
it would seem—offered as his rationale for publication
the greater profitability of novels compared with
sermons. In The Creole (Entry 15), published
during the same year, Samuel Arnold, concluding
his Preface, asserted that no exertions had been
taken on his part to swell the list: an attitude
matched by C. D. L. Lambert in The Adventures
of Cooroo ([1805]: Entry 53), who in ‘The
Author’s Apology to the Reader’ notes that the
list might have been larger had not a concern
for his business (nature of which not stated)
prevented him from being actively solicitous.
Richard Sickelmore in a Preface of 1798 (see Entry
22) presented his routine Gothic novel as a means
of filling in his spare time at Brighton; while,
in perhaps the most ‘masculine’ disclaimer of
all, the military author of St Mary’s Abbey
(1801: Entry 43) stated that his novel was written
while on solitary duty in the Guard Room. Elsewhere
one senses dependency and diffidence being turned
into a kind of literary game. The prize for spectacular
abjectness goes to the unknown (probably Irish)
perpetrator of Tales, by an Unwilling Author
(1822: Entry 93), where even the ‘Errata’ list
is used as a means of conveying the plight of
the author: ‘The writer of these pages is contained
within four walls!!!’ Whether the walls belong
to a hospital, prison, or asylum is not stated.

One subscription
novelist whose immurement was genuine will be
found in the case of Entry 62, The British
Admiral: A Novel (1808), ‘by A Naval Officer’,
where the author in a continuation to his dedication
to Admiral Sir Home Popham describes how he has
received donations from the persons listed while
imprisoned more than ten months for ‘a debt of
thirty pounds only’. [22]
This first work can be seen as one of several
subscription novels which drew attention to active
service (see also as instances Entries 43, ‘by
an officer in the British Militia’, and 72, ‘by
an Old Naval Officer’). Here there is a clear
counterpart in those female titles which intimate
authorship by a victim of the war through the
loss of a supporting relative (e.g. Entries 32
‘by the Widow of an Officer’, and 67 ‘by the daughter
of a Captain in the Navy, deceased’). A similar
focus for public feeling was provided by the French
emigrées in the later 1790s. The success of the
subscription to Camilla was undoubtedly
aided by its author’s well-known marriage to the
exiled General d’Arblay; that to Mary Butt Sherwood’s
The Traditions, the fourth largest in the
Checklist, gathered pace as a result of its being
in aid of the similarly disadvantaged M. St Quentin,
the son of a French nobleman from Alsace; and
the longest list found, belonging to Munster
Abbey, is co-headed by the most noble emigrée
of all, the Comte d’Artois (Charles X to be),
who was then residing in the Scottish royal palace
as a guest of the government. Such extensive lists
bear witness to the determination of the British
establishment, both Whigs and Tories, to be seen
as closing ranks in the light of the perceived
threat from France. In fact, there is a suggestion
that a number of smaller, somewhat contrived-looking
lists, as found in slightly later Minerva publications,
were placed there to give an added cachet to what
were essentially commercial articles.

Subscription novels
also, of course, have great potential for what
they can tell us about the audience for
fiction, and it is here that the greatest amount
of work remains to be done. Due attention in any
analysis needs to be given to possible distorting
factors: the probability, for example, that male
heads of households who feature in lists were
often not the true readers (Richard Lovell Edgeworth
appears alone in The Traditions, but one
suspects it was Maria who consumed the novel).
Even so, some features of the gender composition
of lists are striking, and appear to reflect the
flowering of fiction as a female form in the 1790s,
followed by the appropriation of the mode by male
authors and readers during the 1820s. Four out
of six novels in the 1780s, notwithstanding female
authorship in each case, have lists in which male
outnumber female subscribers. In the 1790s the
situation is reversed, with 15 lists having larger
female subscriptions—one of them, Entry 20, entirely
female—compared with 11 male-predominant lists;
and, perhaps more telling still, only 6 cases
(from 18) where a female-authored novel has a
larger male subscription. During the first two
decades of the new century the position tends
to even out. In the 1800s from the 34 lists analysed,
the ratio of male to female is 18 to 16; though
this decade includes some fairly hefty female
subscriptions (see, e.g., Entries 39 and 63).
In the 1810s the proportion is 11 male to 14 female,
this breakdown incorporating several titles where
the number of male and female subscribers are
almost even (as in Entries 74 and 75). The 1820s,
on the other hand, tend to mirror the male-dominance
of the 1780s (the lists in all but two titles
show a male predominance), though, unlike the
1780s, the novels subscribed to are sometimes
now male-authored as well. Finally, it is worth
noting that through the whole fifty years there
is only one clear-cut case of a male-authored
novel gaining a predominantly female subscription
(Entry 29).

The amount of detail
given about locations varies from almost blanket
coverage to no information at all. Especially
difficult to unlock can be lists which provide
only a smattering of addresses/places of residence,
not least when those given are in all likelihood
the exception rather than rule; for instance,
Amelia Bristow’s evangelical Emma de Lissau
(1828: Entry 100) mentions no locations except
‘Friends at Brighton, 4 copies’; though the probability
is most subscribers came from London. Making due
allowance for vagaries such as this, it is possible
to offer the following breakdown:

Predominantly London. 15 lists fit
this category, with a greater frequency in
the earlier period , and a shift in the later
period (especially when viewed with the next
category) away from the West End and Central
London to include the burgeoning suburban
developments.

London with satellite areas. 23 listed
match this category: a fairly common pattern
here being a combination of a metropolitan
subscription with one or two provincial groupings
(as might result from a family connection),
though some of the larger subscriptions like
Camilla set off more intricate combinations,
and sometimes relatively exotic locations
were involved (Jamaica in the case of Mrs
Gomersall’s two novels, and Oporto for Clark’s
Ianthé). Again this London-dominated
category, at its height in the 1790s, tends
to tail off in the later period.

Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The
development of a polite reading public in
Edinburgh can be sensed in Munster Abbey,
which offers an early glimpse of the fashionable
new-town dwellers who in the next century
would turn in increasing numbers to fiction.
Eight Edinburgh circulating libraries are
listed in Peter Middleton Darling’s The
Romance of the Highlands (1810: Entry
68), published in the same year Scott’s Waverley
was first advertised (though completion of
the latter did not come until 1814). Finally
in Dubois’ Adolphe and Selanie (1824),
as already suggested, a full array of professional
worthies, not averse to having their names
associated with fiction, is visible. Predominantly
Irish subscriptions can be found in Entries
59 and 93, though in both these cases it is
the absence of a supporting readership
which comes over most strongly: only with
The Neville Family (1814: Entry 80)
can one sense a strong supporting locale,
perhaps significantly for this instance in
the neighbourhood of Cork. The Cardiff imprint
of Leave of Absence (1824: Entry 97)
is strictly a one-off; though it is interesting
to see in the list a mixture of country gentry
and professional subscribers characteristic
of the still largely rural country districts
of South Wales combining with emergent industrialists
and mercantalists; and also there the dominant
presence of the Marquess of Bute, whose ownership
of the port of Cardiff and land in the coal-rich
valleys was to lead to an accumulation of
immense wealth later in the century.

In addition to the categories noted above, the
Checklist also includes 15 cases in which aristocratic
court sponsorship is the dominant factor, 16 more
where an absence of locations makes analysis impractical,
and one single item (Entry 66) consisting almost
entirely of overseas India army officers.

Ascertaining social
groupings involves comparable difficulties. Aristocratic
subscribers are generally obtrusive: sometimes
found in separate clusters at the head of lists,
elsewhere granted other forms of privilege such
as precedence in alphabetical order or block capital
lettering. In a few cases a whole list appears
to consist of an aristocratic group followed by
dependents and hangers-on. Members of the gentry
are also fairly perceptible, through titles (Sir,
‘Bart’, etc.), territorial designations, and the
appendage of ‘Esq.’ (though the latter appears
to have been a somewhat fluid term). A large professional
component is inferable through the presence of
titles such as Dr, and related factors such as
a high proportion of clergymen, administrative
post-holders, and serving officers. The status
of women subscribers can usually only be guessed
at through surrounding males, at least in the
case of the gentry and professional classes. Far
more difficult to decipher are the ‘anonymous’
Mr/Mrs/Misses who often form the greater part
of medium-sized and larger lists. Often one senses
a large ‘middle-class’ presence of minor professionals
and tradespeople. Only occasionally, however,
does one find descriptions such as ‘Miss Robins,
at Mr Robins, grocer, Holborn Hill’ (Entry 16)
or ‘Brown, Mr J. Organist’ (Entry 98), though
it is not unlikely there were more grocer’s daughters
if not many organists beneath the surface. An
attempt has been made in the Checklist to give
some idea of the social formations found, though
virtually every instance deserves fuller inspection.
It is worth noting in general terms, however,
that while aristocrat-dominant lists continue
right to the end of our period—witness Roche’s
Contrast (1828: Entry 99)— others which
appear to be largely professional and/or middle
class in composition can be found from the beginning.
Moreover, while there is an overall tendency in
subscription fiction towards deference and dutiful
morality, a degree of ideological freedom can
sometimes be picked up in those novels which appear
to have enjoyed a relatively ‘middle-class’ sponsorship.
Noteworthy here is the pro-mercantile attitude
found in Ann Gomersall’s two titles (Entries 5
and 7); the primitivist liberalism of Samuel Arnold’s
The Creole (1796: Entry 15); the reorientation
of Wollstonecraftian feminism in Helena Wells’s
Constantia Neville (1800: Entry 33); and
James Amphlett’s satirical assault on the patronage
system in Ned Bentley (1808: Entry 64),
itself dedicated to the Whig politician R. B.
Sheridan.

This leads to one
last question: to what extent did subscription
novels parallel generic movements perceptible
in fiction output generally? In some cases, the
answer must be negative. A fair number in the
Checklist are formulaic in the extreme, either
through ineptitude or ultra-cautiousness on their
author’s part, and a handful were evidently dragged
out just for the occasion. A prefatory notice
to Wareham Priory (1799) observes that
‘As this Novel was written a few years before
the French Revolution, the reader will not be
surprised to find young men making France and
Italy part of their continental tour’; while the
‘relict’ Sarah Cobbe in the Preface to a highly
predictable Julia St Helen (1800: Entry
39) freely acknowledges that the work ‘is not
mine, but has been kindly obtained for me
by the deceased author’s relatives’ (I,
[vii]). In other cases, it is possible to trace
a more positive trajectory, which, if ultimately
reactive rather than innovative, does nevertheless
suggest that subscription authors could be aware
of recent trends and fresh expectations. Sentimental
domestic novels, in the manner of the early Charlotte
Smith, are particularly noticeable in the 1790s
and early 1800s, and accompanying lists encourage
the view that this type was popular with both
fashionable residents in the London West End and
southern English provincial neighbourhoods: the
former apparently preferring upper-class characters
in the key roles, the latter appreciating images
of beneficent gentry protection.

Gothic elements
first appear in 1795–96, and (though the sample
is small) are most prevalent during the years
1798–1803, albeit by 1804 a reaction is also clear
(see Entry 51). Contrary to recent claims that
that the Gothic genre enjoyed a widespread popularity
amongst a female ‘middle-class’ readership, the
most common grouping found in these lists is that
of Whig aristocratic ladies (see Entries 25, 31,
41, 47, 50). Historical novels, some claiming
a ‘documentary’ origin, though invariably sentimental
in character, are found virtually from the start:
see, for example, Anne Fuller’s The Son of
Ethelwolf (1789: Entry 6), which rather implausibly
offers King Alfred as role model for Prince of
Wales. No doubt an air of authenticity helped
assuage the fears of subscribers worried about
publicly associating themselves with fiction.
A distinct shift to ‘regional’/’national’ subjects
is perceptible during the 1810s, with Irish and
Scottish settings and/or characters especially
popular. This reflects larger successes with ‘national’
tales on the open market, notably by Maria Edgeworth,
Sydney Owenson, and Jane Porter (with Scottish
Chiefs (1810)); as well as a more pervasive
public enthusiasm for far-flung outposts of loyalty
in blockaded Britain. The uncharacteristically
rapid response in subscription fiction to this
new mode was evidently aided by clienteles eager
to investigate and promote their own localities:
the anonymous Silvanella (1812: Entry 73),
for example, with a heavy concentration of subscribers
in the region of Stroud, grafts Gloucestershire
‘manners’ (including dialect speech) on to the
common stock of the sentimental novel. The relatively
heavy crop of moral religious novels found in
the last two decades likewise must have benefited
from the development of other kinds of subscription
within evangelical groups, often consisting primarily
of middle-class women, as in support of shorter
didactic tracts or good works generally. [23]
A broad shift in the ideological climate is also
evident in an increasing tendency among subscription
novelists (particularly women) to foreground religious
credentials: the Preface to Roche’s Contrast,
for example, is insistent on its author’s intention
‘to inculcate, under a pleasing form, pure morality’.

It has only been
possible in this account to skim the surface of
the materials to hand, though hopefully enough
has been glimpsed at to suggest a fuller potential.
While our knowledge of the authorship, production,
and distribution of novels during the period in
view has advanced usefully in recent years, the
nature of reading audiences is still something
of a grey area. If, as Maurice Couturier has stated,
‘It is not yet possible to draw a reliable picture
of the novel-reading public [in the eighteenth
century]’, [24]
how much more of a puzzle is presented by the
diverse and shifting audiences of the British
Romantic period. [25]
It is hoped that the following Checklist will
throw some further light on the sponsorship of
fiction and its readers, especially in the neglected
years early in the nineteenth century. With the
online publication of British Fiction, 1800–1829:
A Database of Production, Circulation and Reception
History, as being developed in the Centre
for Editorial and Intertextual Research at Cardiff,
and scheduled for release in Autumn 2004, researchers
will also have access to full transcriptions of
all seventy lists discovered from 1800 as presently
digested in the Checklist below.

2.
Ibid., IV, 461. It is noticeable that
the Abbotsford Library contains Hogg’s poetry but not his
fiction.

3. ‘It
is for the advantage of the present generation, that most
respectable Writers have undertaken the task of Novelists.
A few years since, heroines were disciples of Mary Wollstonecraft,
and more suited to the Magdalen Asylum than companions for
the drawing-room’ (Preface, i, viii).

4. ‘I
certainly translated the little work which is now submitted
to your judgment, with a view to pecuniary profit—it would
be vanity to deny it’ (‘Dedication. To My Subscribers’, I,
[iii]). Compare Scott in 1802: ‘you may hold me acquitted
of the vile vanity of wishing to hold myself forth as despising
to reap any profit’ (Letters, I,
163).

6.
See W. Roberts, ‘Jane Austen and Mrs Sherwood’, in Times
Literary Supplement, 8 Nov 1934, p. 780. The use of ‘Miss’
in this subscription points to the possibility that Cassandra,
the elder sister, was the nominal subscriber.

7.
Yale University Center for British Art holds a copy (c.
1800) of the following one sheet proposal: ‘The authoress
of “The mystic cottager” and “Observant pedestrian” begs leave
to inform [blank] she is publishing, by subscription, a novel
entitled The victims of error, in three volumes, interspersed
with poetry; and shall esteem it a favour to receive any commands
he may please to honour her with, by directing a line for
C. L. No. 98, Royal Exchange, where the subscription-lists
are now opened, and orders punctually attended to.’ The same
(still anonymous) author went on to publish at least three
more novels, ending with Human Frailities (1803); but
The Victims of Error, at least under this title, apparently
never came to fruition. Another instance is found in an advertisement
in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 7 June 1819,
for subscriptions to ‘The Heiress of the Abbey’, by Elizabeth
Gest of Salisbury; again, no such published work has been
traced.

8.
For example, Edward Rose, Seaman, in The Sea Devil or,
Son of a Bellows-Mender (Plymouth Dock, 1811), whose Preface
pointedly notes the absence of a list, and the likelihood
consequently of greater criticism of the narrative with its
plebeian hero: ‘for who will not read, and reading admire,
a book patronized by Lord A. B. C. D. and other equally celebrated
leaders of taste and fashion’ (I, vi).

15.
An instance is provided by Sarah Taylor’s Glenalpin, or
the Bandit’s Cave, 3 vols (London, 1828), which contains
a ‘Preface addressed to the Subscribers’, signed Sarah Taylor,
7 April 1828. Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers advertised
for sale (Catalogue XCV, Item 1099) a copy with a vi-pp. subscribers’
list in vol. 2, but no such list is found in the rare Corvey
copy.

16.
The preliminaries to Eliza Frances Robertson’s Destiny:
or, Family Occurrences (1804), for example, include the
following noticed headed ‘CARD’: ‘The Author presents most
respectful Thanks to those Ladies and Gentlemen who did her
the Honor of subscribing for this Work; but being few in number,
and some, from a Wish to conceal their Benevolence, having
forbid their Names to appear, a List of Subscribers is omitted.’
Eliza Robertson was imprisoned for debt, and died shortly
afterwards in the Fleet Prison. Another instance is found
the Preface (pp. 4) to Amelia Bristow’s Sophia de Lissau
(1826): ‘The Author intended to prefix a List of the Subscribers,
but as it was found difficult to procure the Names correctly,
and many of her immediate Friends requested that their Names
might not appear, it is omitted; though she would have been
proud to record the distinguished names that have been obtained.’

17.
This relatively unknown Mrs Duncombe should not be confused,
though the mistake has been made, with the prolific poet and
artist Susanna Duncombe (1725–1812), whose husband’s Christian
name was John.

18. Other authors whose subscription novel
was followed by a larger commercial output include: Anna Maria
Mackenzie (Entry 1); Richard Sickelmore (22); Emily Clark
(24); Anne Ker (31); and, of course, Mary (Butt) Sherwood
(12). Henrietta Rouviere Mosse’s A Peep at our Ancestors
(59), the third of her novels by date of publication, was
actually projected first, though delayed as a result of difficulties
with the subscription.

19. ‘It
may not be uninteresting to the feeling and compassionate
to say, that the anxiety of his mind in wishing to complete
it […] brought on so serious an illness previous to his decease,
that it stopped the progress necessary for the completion
of the work’ (Edinburgh Evening Courant, 11 Feb 1797).

20.
Jan Fergus and Janice Farrar Thaddeus, ‘Women, Publishers,
and Money, 1790–1820’, Eighteenth-Century Culture 17
(1987), 191–207 (p. 193). In a footnote the authors note the
possibility that Clark might have gained more through delivering
books herself. The papers examined, relating to the dissolution
of the partnership of Hookham and Carpenter, survive in the
Public Record Office.

21.
Mary Champion de Crespigny was married to Claude Champion
de Crespigny, an Admiralty official (later baronet), and cultivated
a naval and aristocratic circle whose members included the
Prince of Wales. She published The Pavilion: A Novel
(1796) with William Lane. Her name features in numerous subscription
lists, including Entries 6, 8, 18, 39, 40, 41, 42, and 56.

22.
See Dedication, I, xii. A Minerva Library
catalogue of 1814 later identified the author as Lieut. Arnold
: see Dorothy Blakey, The Minerva Press, 1790–1820
(London: Bibliographical Society, 1939). The same author went
on to publish two further novels with the Minerva Press, the
second of these, The Irishmen (1810), describing him
as ‘a native officer’ (i.e. an Irishman himself).

23. An example of the former is found in
the subscription list appended to my own copy of Ann Catharine
Holbrook’s Realities and Reflections, in which virtue and
vice are contrasted (2nd edn, 1822). This includes c.
420 names grouped under a number Midland towns and neighbourhoods.

24. Maurice Couturier, Textual Communication:
A Print-Based Theory of the Novel (London and New York:
Routledge, 1991), pp. 45–46. For commentary on the subscription
method of publication in the eighteenth century, see also
James Raven, Judging New Wealth: Popular Publishing and
Responses to Commerce in England 1770–1800 (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1992), pp. 27, 56; and Dustin Griffin, Literary
Patronage in England, 1650–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996) especially pp. 258–85. Amongst individual
subscription titles, Frances Burney’s Camilla has received
a fair amount of attention: for a recent example, see Sara
Salih, ‘Camilla in the Marketplace: Moral Marketing
and Feminist Editing in 1796 and 1802’, in Authorship,
Commerce and the Public: Scenes of Writing, 1750–1850,
edd. E. J. Clery, Caroline Franklin and Peter Garside (Basingstoke
and New York: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 120–35.

25. Pioneering work, largely in theoretical
terms, can be found in Jon P. Klancher, The Making of English
Reading Audiences, 1790–1832 (Madison: University
of Wisconsin Press, 1987); and in Clifford Siskin, The
Work of Writing (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1998). William St Clair’s The Reading Nation in the Romantic
Period (forthcoming, 2004) is eagerly awaited, and will
no doubt add a good deal of fresh evidence.

II

SUBSCRIPTION
FICTION, 1780–1829: A CHECKLIST

Each entry there begins with details of title,
authorship and imprint, based on actual title-pages, albeit
with an element of standardisation (e.g. publisher’s addresses
are usually omitted). In bold is then given a breakdown of
the lists, in the following order: number of male subscribers
(M); number of female subscribers (F); gender-unidentifed
subscribers (U); sum total of subscriptions (S);
additional copies (A); total number of copies subscribed
(T). This line is completed with the name of the holding
library where the copy was seen (BL for British Library, and
so on). Three separate lines after this then record: i) main
locations of subscribers as evident or inferable from the
lists; ii) the social composition of the lists, again insofar
as this can be deduced; iii) an indication of type (say Gothic
or Sentimental), and, where relevant, special features (such
as reference to the French Revolution). After this a general
Notes field gives details concerning prefatory matter, the
positioning of the lists, etc., on an optional basis. Entries
are concluded, where appropriate, with information concerning
in-period further editions published in mainland Britain.

1783

(1) Burton-Wood:In a Series of Letters,
by a Lady [Anna Maria Mackenzie], 2 vols, London (Printed
for the author, by W. Flexney, Holborn), 1783.M127 F85 S212 A37 T249. Bristol.
London (inner City, Islington, West Ham); Home counties; North
England.
Military, professional, trade (1 Distiller).
Moral sentimental; epistolary; digressions on British liberty,
military virtues, female education (semi-apologetically).
‘To the Subscribers of Burton-Wood’, 7pp. end of vol. 1, defends
novel as means of promoting virtue.

(3) St. Bernard’s Priory: An Old English
Tale, being the first literary production of a young lady
[Martha Hugell], 1 vol., London (Printed for authoress, and
sold at Swift’s Circulating Library), 1786.M53 F76 U1 S130 A18 T148. BL.
No locations, presumably London.
No high-ranking nobility; one-third ‘Miss’.
Sentimental historical, touches of Walpole’s Castle of
Otranto.
Dedication to the Duchess of Devonshire (to whom she is ‘personally
unknown’), signed No 25 Duke Street, St James’s, 1 May 1786.
Large format, with ‘Price 3s’ on title-page. Mr Swift takes
6 copies.
Further edn: 1789 as Priory of St Bernard, 2 vols,
Minerva Press.

(5) Eleonora, a Novel, in a Series of
Letters, written by a female inhabitant of Leeds in Yorkshire[Mrs Ann Gomersall], 2 vols, London (Printed for the authoress,
by the Literary Society and the Logographic Press, and sold
by J. Walter; and W. Richardson), [1789].M83 F101 U33 S217 A5 T222. BL.
70 London and suburban; South and South West (ports); Leeds
area; Jamaica contingent.
Middle class professional and presumably also trade; titled
and some literary women.
Social domestic epistolary (wide class spectrum); pro-mercantile;
scenes from Leeds.
Dedication to Viscountess Irwin of Temple Newsam, Yorkshire.

(9) The History of Georgina Neville;
or, the Disinterested Orphan: A Novel, being the first
literary attempt of a young lady, 2 vols, London (Printed
for the authoress: sold by T. Hookham; and J. Carpenter),
1791.M79 F143 S222 A4 T226. BL.
London West End; small NW England element.
Headed 8 Dukes/Duchesses; high proportion female aristocrats.
Moral sentimental genteel (well-bred heroine, destitute, has
notion of funding herself by playing guitar!).
Dedication, ‘with permission’, to the Hon Lady Warren: stresses
the potential usefulness of novel of manners as an ‘inducement
to virtue’. Adv. for Hookham’s Circulating Library, Old Bond
Street, on last page. BL copy (12611.c.27) has book plate
of Viscountess Bulkeley (one of the subscribers).

(14) The Contradiction, by the Rev.
William Cole, 1 vol., London (Printed for T. Cadell, jun.,
and W. Davies), 1796.M162 F75 S237 A38 T275. Bristol.
No locations.
Gentry and clergy; female subscribers usually part of family
clusters.
Moral and literary in flavour; shades of Tristram Shandy.

(16) Memoirs of the Princess of Zell,
Consort to King George the First, [by Sarah Draper], 2
vols, London (Printed for the author, by William Lane, at
the Minerva Press), 1796.M108 F169 U3 S280 A43 T323. BL.
City of London and suburbs; Hertfordshire; East Anglia (16
Ely, largely ecclesiastical).
Minor professional; presumably tradespeople (one grocer’s
daughter).
Fictionalised monarchist royal memoirs.
Dedication to Her Serene Highness, the Margravine of Brandenbourg
Anspach, signed Sarah Draper, Hammersmith. ‘To the Reader’
disclaims any political intention or direct contemporary reference.

(17) The Mystery of the Black Tower,
a Romance, by John Palmer, jun., author of The Haunted
Cavern, 2 vols, London (Printed for the author, by William
Lane, at the Minerva-Press), 1796.M82 F33 S115 A4 T119. Yale.
London theatres (31 Drury Lane, 6 Covent Garden); London residential
addresses.
Actors and actresses, some well-known; theatre-goers?
Gothic horror romance.

(19) Charles Dacre: or, the Voluntary
Exile: An Historical Novel, Founded on Facts, 2
vols, Edinburgh (Printed by John Moir), 1797.M15 F17 S/T32. BL.
No locations.
19 aristocrats (Duke of Buccleuch and family prominent); 13
commoners (one Writer to the Signet).
Picaresque adventures, male sentimentalism; disappointed hero
retreats to Switzerland.
‘Address to the Reader’ states author’s inexperience, and
claims that friend prevailed on him to publish.

(20) Clara Lennox; or, the Distressed
Widow: A Novel, Founded on Facts, Interspersed with an Historical
Description of the Isle of Man, by Mrs [Margaret] Lee,
2 vols, London (Printed for the authoress, by J. Adlard; and
sold by J. Parsons), [1797]. M0 F68 S/T68. BL.
No locations, presumably Court.
Aristocratic female (headed Princes of Wales and Duchess of
York): high proportion in other lists.
Sentimental moralistic (effusively pro-virtue); epistolary.
Dedication, ‘by permission’, to the Duchess of York.
Further edn: 2nd edn, 1797.

(23) Heaven’s Best Gift: A Novel,
by Mrs Lucius Phillips, a near relation to Major General Phillips,
3 vols, London (Printed for the author, and sold by W. Miller;
and Lloyd), [1798].M31 F53 S/T84. Corvey.
No locations.
Large aristocratic element (56 titled, including ‘Lady’).
Sentimental domestic; pecuniary worries passim.

(24) Ianthé, or the Flower of Caernarvon,
a Novel, dedicated by permission to his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales, by Emily Clark, grand-daughter of the
late Colonel Frederick, son of Theodore, King of Corsica,
2 vols, London (Printed for the author; and sold by Hookham
and Carpenter), 1798.M106 F90 U1 S197 A74 T271. BL; Corvey lacks list.
No locations, apart from Oporto (c. 30); but presumably
London.
Royal princes head list; mixed bag follow.
Domestic sentimental (‘poor Willoughby’ proves a deceiver!).

(29) The Force of Prejudice, a Moral
Tale, [by Joseph Wildman], 2 vols, London (Printed by
J. Barfield, for the author, and to be had of him, No 18,
West-Street, Soho), 1799.M273 F476 S/T749. Bristol.
545 locations, of which 533 London residential addresses (West
End, Bloomsbury, Finsbury etc.).
In-town aristocracy; 25 MPs; military and professional.
Moral sentimental domestic: the bereft find security.
Dedication to Lady Howard, signed Joseph Wildman, West-Street,
Soho, 19 Dec 1799. ‘Advertisement to the Reader’, also dated
19 Dec 1799, apologises for mistakes made in haste to complete.
Another notice, dated 25 March 1800 (following supplementary
list dated the same) apologises for late delivery, blaming
the increased price of paper; 250 sets remain unsold, and
the list will remain open for a while longer.
Further edn: 1800 (BL 1507/854 has MS additions to subscribers).

(30) He Deceives Himself: A Domestic
Tale, by Marianne Chambers, daughter of the late Mr. Charles
Chambers, many years in the service of the Hon. East-India
Company, and unfortunately lost in the Winterton, 3
vols, London (Printed for C. Dilly),1799.M91 F102 S193 A14 T207. BL.
London (city addresses, and south of the river); West Country
(chiefly Bristol).
Merchant navy (21 Captain, only 1 RN); minor professional
and trade.
Moral sentimental domestic; anti fashionable world.
Dedication to Mr Thomas Powell, of Bristol (her grandfather).

(31) The Heiress di Montalde; or, the
Castle of Bezanto: A Novel, by Mrs. Anne Ker, 2
vols, London (Printed for the author, and sold by Earle and
Hemet), 1799.M9 F43 S52 A3 T55. BL.
No locations.
Female aristocratic sponsorship (10 titled or ‘Lady’), headed
Duchess of Gloucester.
Radcliffian Gothic.
Dedicated, by permission , to her Royal Highness the Princess
Augusta Sophia (t.p. and dedication). Preliminaries include
Notice, thanking ‘the Nobility, Gentry, and the Public in
general, who have honoured her first publication’, and announcing
her Adeline St. Julian, to be published in November.

(35) Eliza, a Novel, by Mrs. Yeates,
Daughter of the late Holland Cooksey, Esq. of Braces Leigh,
in the county of Worcester, 2 vols, Lambeth (Printed and published
by S. Tibson; and sold by C. Chapple, Pall-Mall; J. and E.
Kerby; J. Lee; and West and Hughes), 1800.M69½ F53½ U2 S125 A50 T175. Corvey.
Worcestershire; London (West End); Oxford.
Country gentry; Master of the Rolls and 3 MPs.
Sentimental domestic-melodramatic.
Dedication ‘to the amiable and humane Mrs. Bland, of Ham-Court
in the County of Worcester’. Includes rare instance of husband
and wife joint subscription (‘Mackaughland, Col. and Mrs.’).

(36) Elliott: or, Vicissitudes of Early
Life, by a Lady [Mrs Burke], 2 vols, London (Printed and
published by Geo. Cawthorn, Bookseller to Her Royal Highness
the Princess of Wales; sold also by Messrs. Richardson; H.
D. Symonds, J. Wallis West and Hughes; and J. Wright), 1800.M70 F144 S215 A36 T251. Corvey.
London residential; North Wales; English provincial; Edinburgh
cluster (at end).
Aristocracy (headed Duke of Gloucester and Scottish Argyll
family); country gentry; Edinburgh polite.
Sentimental domestic melodrama.
Last item ‘Messrs. Manners and Millar, Parliament-square,
Edinburgh, 6 sets’.

(37) Ermina Montrose; or, the Cottage
of the Vale, with Characters from Life, by Emily Clark,
grand-daughter of the late Colonel Frederick, and author of
“Ianthe; or, the Flower of Caernarvon”, 3 vols, London (Printed
for the author, and sold by James Wallis), 1800.M66 F43 S109 A48 T157. Corvey.
No locations.
Mixed bag generally.
High sentimental domestic: tribulations of heroine.
Dedication to the Right Honorable Countess of Shaftesbury,
signed Emily Clark, No 4, Cockspur-street, Haymarket.Subscribers
inc. Maria Edgeworth (20 copies).

(39) Julia St. Helen; or, the Heiress
of Ellisborough: A Novel, published by Sarah Cobbe, Relict
of the Rev. Richard Chaloner Cobbe, Rector of Bradenham in
Buckinghamshire, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable The
Earl of Moira, 2 vols, London (Printed by J. Nichols; sold
by Earle and Hemet), 1800.M149 F254 U6 S409 A21 T430. BL.
No locations.
Headed Prince of Wales; aristocracy and gentry; clergy; 2
book clubs.
Sentimental domestic; orphan heroine and London incidents.
Dedication to ‘the Right Honourable the Earl of Moira, Baron
Rawdon’, dated 15 June 1800. Adv. for ‘Original French and
English Circulating Library, W. Earle’ after list. Subscribers
inc. Mrs Crespigny.

(42) Ruthinglenne, or the Critical Moment:
A Novel; dedicated, by permission, to Lady Dalling, by
Isabella Kelly, author of Madeline, Abbey of St. Asaph, Avondale
Priory, Eva, &c. &c., 3 vols, London (Printed at the
Minerva-Press, for William Lane), 1801.M28 F35 S/T63. Corvey.
No locations.
Flecked with upper-crust names.
Sentimental domestic à la Charlotte Smith; North of England
setting, ancient abbey.
Dedication to Lady Dalling, thanking her for her patronage
and alluding to the author’s family misfortunes. Subscribers
inc: Mrs Crespigny, Duchess of Gloucester, M. G. Lewis, Duchess
of York (last entry, under York).

(43) St. Mary’s Abbey: A Novel,
by an officer in the British Militia, 2 vols, Chelmsford (Printed
for the author, by R. C. Stanes, and Co.), 1801.72M 27F 1U S/T100. Corvey.
No locations, but most probably in region of Chelmsford (see
imprint), warding off Napoleon!
Minor aristocracy; 42 militia offficers (mostly Royal Bucks);
female commoners.
Historical-sentimental: 2 female cousins escaping persecutions
of Henry VIII (Children of the Abbey spin-off?).

1802

(44) The Bride’s Embrace on the Grave;
or, the Midnight Wedding in the Church of Mariengarten:
Taken from the German [of Ignaz Ferdinand Arnold], by Maria
Geisweiler, 2 vols, London (Printed by G. Sidney; for Constantine
Geisweiler), 1802.M69 F90 U2 S161 A103 T264. BL.
London (West End and Central); Kent; Glasgow.
Headed Princess of Wales, Duchess of York, Duke of Cumberland;
smattering aristocrats; booksellers.
Trans. of Der Brautkuß auf dem Grabe, oder die Trauung
um Mitternacht in der Kirche zu Mariengarten (Rudolstadt/Arnstadt,
1801).
Notice by the author, dated 20 Mar 1802, in which she apologizes
‘for the delay in publication; owing to some very unpleasant
occurrences at the printing-office where it was first began,
and from which it was necessary to remove it to another for
its completion’. The author was the wife of Constantine Geisweiler,
a bookseller specialising in German books in London: see also
Entry 84.

(46) The Rules of the Forest, by
Susanna Oakes, 3 vols, Derby (Printed by J. Drewry, and sold
by all Booksellers in the three Kingdoms), [1802].M56 F36 S92 A20? T112?. Corvey.
South Derbyshire.
Full ‘neighbourhood’ spectrum (Duchess of Devonshire, country
gentry; town-dwellers).
Sentimental pastoral domestic; some ‘high life’ characters.
Frontispiece depicts the authoress as ‘keeper of the circulating
library at Ashborne in the County of Derby’. ‘Advertisement’
at the end vol. 1 offers an apology for ‘the repeated delays
during the process of the foregoing pages’, and promises that
the remaining vols will be ‘brought forward as expeditiously
as possible’. List of ‘Subscribers Names’ (4pp. unn.) at the
beginning of vol. 3; sums donated (most commonly 10s 6d) range
from £5 to 5s. Vol. 3 t.p. is dated 1802. Novel proper ends
on p. 462, followed by a final ‘Advertisement’ stating
that the length of the final vol., and expence on paper, has
necessitated raising the price: ‘First Subscriptions, 10s.
6d.—with additions, 13s. 6d.’.

1803

(47) the Cave of Cosenza: A Romance
of the Eighteenth Century; altered from the Italian, by
Eliza Nugent Bromley, author of Laura and Augustus; dedicated,
by permission, to his Royal Highness the Duke of York, 2 vols,
London (Printed by W. Calvert; for G. and J. Robinson; and
Hookham and Ebers), 1803.M75 F33 S108 A31 T139. Corvey.
London residential; English provincial.
Aristocratic (headed royal dukes and Duchess of York); military.
Radcliffian Gothic.
Dedication, dated London, Dec 1803, presents author ‘as an
officer’s widow, [and] as a lineal descendant of soldiers’.

(51) Casualties: A Novel, by Mary
Goldsmith, author of The Comedy entitled She Lives! or, The
Generous Brother, 2 vols, London (Printed by Roden and Lewis;
for T. Hughes; and sold by Jordan Hookham; Harding; Lloyd;
and J. Ridgeway), 1804.M6 F21 ST27 A3 T30. BL; Corvey lacks list.
No locations.
High aristocratic female (headed Duchess of Devonshire), followed
by 10 commoners (women first).
Moral sentimental domestic.
Dedication to the Honorable Mrs A. M. Egerton. T.p. carries
the following statement: ‘No Subterranean Caverns—Haunted
Castles—Enchanted Forests—Fearful Visions—Mysterious Voices—Supernatural
Agents—Bloody Daggers—Dead Men’s Skulls—Mangled Bodies—Nor
Marvellous Lights, form any Part of the present Work; but
will be found, on Perusal, to arise out of Natural Incidents.’

(52) Galerio and Nerissa, including
Original Correspondence, the History of an English Nobleman
and Lady; several Poetical Effusions, and a Few Domestic Anecdotes,
[by John Gale Jones], 1 vol., London (Printed for the author,
and sold by Messrs. Jordan and Maxwell),1804.M146 F16 S162 A34 T196. BL.
London residential (Soho, Chelsea, Bloomsbury, Strand etc.);
3 Americans.
Professional (medical, naval administrative); trade (2 coachmakers,
1 engraver, 1 linen draper).
Pastoral allegory.
‘Price four shillings in boards’ on t.p.

1805

(53) The Adventures of Cooroo, a Native
of The Pellew Islands, by C. D. L. Lambert, 1 vol., Norwich
(Printed and sold by Stevenson and Matchett; sold also by
Scatcherd and Letterman,London, and all other Booksellers),
[1805].M67 F14 U4 S85 A1 T86. BL; Corvey lacks list.
Presumably local Norwich; one London address.
Smattering of minor aristocracy; predominantly Esq. and Mr;
3 book clubs.
Trans-cultural satire: Cooroo in England.
Dedication to Lady Harriet Berney.

1806

(54) Delmore, or Modern Friendship:
A Novel, by Mrs. [D.] Roberts, 3 vols, London (Printed
for the author, and sold by R. Faulder), 1806.M79 F30 S109 A1 T110. Corvey.
No locations.
(Whig?) aristocracy (headed Princes of Wales and Duchess of
York); 13 MPs.
Domestic moral; fashionable characters.
Dedication to the Princess of Wales, expressing ‘vast debt
of obligation’, signed D. Roberts, Clarence Place. Subscribers
inc. ‘Mrs. Opie’. ‘Additional Subscribers’ (7 more names,
included above) at end of vol. 3.
Further edn: 1809.

(55) The Strangers; a Novel, by
Mrs. Norris, author of Second Love, &c., 3 vols, London
(Printed by W. Glendinning; and published for the Author,
by Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe), 1806.M110 F131 S241 A16 T257. Urbana.
About 20% Irish (places or militia affiliations); remainder
without locations.
Military; some East India men; English sponsors (inc. Duchess
of Devonshire).
Moral social domestic.
‘To The Reader’, dated London, Apr 1806: this states that
the Duchess of Devonshire had accepted the dedication, before
her recent death; it also describes the author as being separated
‘from her native country, and consequently from friends and
connections’ (p. vi).
Further edn: 1807 as Olivia and Marcella; or, the Strangers
(Corvey—a reissue by B. Crosby and Co., without list).

(59) A Peep at our Ancestors: An Historical
Romance, by Henrietta Rouviere [afterwards Mosse], author
of Lussington Abbey, Heirs of Villeroy, &c, 4 vols, London
(Printed at the Minerva-Press, for Lane, Newman, and Co.),
1807.M38 F8 S/T46. Corvey.
Dublin and Irish towns; London polite residential.
Irish aristocratic; 5 MPs Dublin; professional and commerce?
Historical (12th-century England).
Frontispiece portrait of the author. Dedication to ‘His Grace
the late Duke of Leinster’, dated London, 1 Oct 1807. ‘Address’
states that the work intended originally to have appeared
(in Dublin) ‘by subscription’ in Feb 1805, but was deferred
through the the death of Duke of Leinster then of the author’s
mother; the Dublin sponsors had proved better at promises
than execution, and the present names are from ‘her own private
list that she personally received here, and which she
thinks necessary to subjoin’.

(62) The British Admiral: A Novel,
by A Naval Officer [Lieut Arnold], London (Printed at the
Minerva-Press, for Lane, Newman, and Co.), 1808.M21 F3 S/T24. Corvey.
No locations.
Princess of Wales; the royal Dukes; leading nobility; Covent
Garden actors and actresses; also ‘Mr, Chapple, 66, Pall Mall,
(who is so good as to receive subscriptions)’.
Social domestic satirical: naval central character.
Dedication ‘to Sir Home Popham, Knight, Commander of His Majesty’s
Squadron at the Glorious Capture of Buenos Ayres, on the 27th
of June, 1806’, dated 1 May 1808.

(63) Herbert-Lodge; a New-Forest Story,
by Miss [Ellen Rebecca] Warner, of Bath, 3 vols, Bath (Printed
by Richard Cruttwell, St. James’s-Street; and sold by Wilkie
and Robinson, London), 1808.M280 F445 U2 S727 A159 T886. Bristol.
9 named location (3 London); the remainder presumably Bath-dominated.
Aristocracy (headed Duchess of York) and gentry; high proportion
‘Esq.’; 38 Revd; 5 MPs. Family groupings common.
Sentimental domestic: French Revolution scenes and guillotining
of high society anti-heroine!
In Preface author mentions ‘the latter days of an infirm parent’
and ‘the sick couch of an only sister’; she hopes to deserve
patronage received by ‘endeavouring to make her volumes the
medium of mental improvement, and moral and religious instruction’.
Subscribers inc: Miss J. Baillie; Professor Playfair; W. Roscoe,
Esq., and W. Roscoe, jun., Esq. Main list is followed by ‘Names
sent too late for insertion in the List’, p. [xxi]. Imprint
of Yale copy differs by reading: ‘[…] and sold by Longman,
Hurst, Rees, and Orme, London, 1808’.

(64) Ned Bentley, a Novel, by J[ames]
Amphlett, 3 vols, Stafford (Printed by J. Drewry; and published
by Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, London), 1808.M179 F46 U6 S231 A36 T267. Corvey.
Staffordshire; Midlands generally; London; Liverpool.
Middle ranks; professional; book club/libraries.
Male picaresque: struggle for survival.
Dedication ‘to the Right Hon. R. B. Sheridan’, stating work
to be written ‘in the spirit of those principles which you
have uniformly approved, and which are characteristic of genuine
English society’. Preface, alluding to the irregular manner
in which the work was written, dated Stafford, 2 Oct 1808.
Subscribers inc. ‘Roscoe William, esq. Liverpool’.

(65) The Village Gentleman, and the
Attorney at Law; a Narrative, by Mrs. [A.] Duncombe, 2
vols, London (Printed for J. Hatchard, Bookseller to Her Majesty),
1808.M21 F33 U2 S/T56. BL.
No locations.
High aristocratic (18, headed Prince and Princess of Wales,
royal Dukes and Princesses); 2 Revd; remainder untitled.
Moral domestic.
Dedication to the the Countess of Albemarle, signed A. Duncombe.

(67) The Officer’s Daughter; or, a Visit
to Ireland in 1790, by the daughter [Miss Walsh] of a
Captain in the Navy, deceased, 4 vols, London (Printed by
Joyce Gold, Shoe Lane), 1810.M109 F115 U1 S225 A27 T252. Urbana.
West Country, especially ports; occasional London; Dublin
Castle.
Army and navy; militia; naval administrative.
Sentimental domestic: Irish regional.
Dedication to the Hon. Mrs Fane, offering ‘this first effort
of my imagination to you’. Note at foot of list apologising
for any omissions of names caused by late arrival at the press.

(70) Julia de Vienne: A Novel, imitated
from the French, by a Lady, 4 vols, London (Printed for Henry
Colburn), 1811.M27 F16 S/T43.Corvey.
No locations.
Headed Prince of Wales, royal Dukes and Duchess of York; aristocrats
and court.
Sentimental fashionable.
Dedication to the Prince of Wales, introducing ‘this my first
attempt’.

(71) Like Master Like Man: A Novel,
by the late John Palmer, (of the Theatre Royal, in the Haymarket:)
son to the deceased and celebrated John Palmer, of the Theatre
Royal Drury-Lane, and of the above mention’d theatre; with
a Preface, by George Colman, the Younger, 2 vols, London (Printed
for the Relief of the Author’s Widow, and sold by W.
Earle), 1811.M67 F20 S/T87. BL.
No locations, presumably London
Headed Prince Regent and Duke of York; aristocratical; theatrical/literary.
Domestic melodrama.
Preface, signed ‘George Colman, The Younger’ and dated 10
Apr 1811, describes how the manuscript had been purchased
by Mr Earle before the author’s death for 15 guineas, and
how the bookseller had agreed to its publication by subscription
instead. It also quotes from the proposal and describes how
the author’s widow has been living on subscriptions during
more than a year’s delay preparing the work. Subscription
against names vary between £5.00 and £1.00; 20 names have
no amount, pointedly indicating non-payment. Subscribers inc:
Thomas Dibdin, Charles Kemble, ‘M. G. Lewis, Esq.’.

1812

(72) A Peep at the Theatres! and Bird’s-eye
Views of Men in the Jubilee Year! A Novel, satirical,
critical, and moral; by an Old Naval Officer, 3 vols, London
(Printed for C. Chapple), 1812.M21 F9 S/T30. Harvard.
No locations, but presumably London.
List headed by three Dukes (Kent, Marlborough, Bedford); actors
and actresses evident amongst commoners.
Fashionable scandal novel.
‘Prefatory address ‘To the Subscribers’, dated Pall-Mall,
Feb 1812. Individual dedications to the Prince Regent, vol.
1, to the Duke of York, vol. 2, and to the Duke of Kent, vol.
3. Indvidual subscribers inc. Mrs Siddons and Charles Kemble.

(78) The Prior Claim: A Tale, by
Mrs. [Maria] Iliff, 2 vols, London (Published for the author,
by J. Burch), 1813.M70 F115 S185 A7 T192. Corvey.
South London surburban; English provincial (especially Nottinghamshire).
Headed Duke of Kent: thereafter Miss/Mrs prevalent.
Domestic moralistic (Amelia Opie-like).
Dedication. ‘To my Friends! And who, it may be asked, are
they?’, dated London, 4 Mar 1813: ‘It is the first, and will
probably be the last attempt of the kind which I shall intrude
upon the Public.’

1814

(79) Conduct: A Novel, 3 vols, London
(Printed at the Minerva-Press, for A. K. Newman and Co.),
1814.M109 F144 U2 S255 A40 T295. Corvey.
No locations.
Middle ranks: professional; minor aristocracy; 14 Revd.
Domestic moralistic.
‘To the Subscribers and the Public’, in which author states
that the work ‘never would have been published, but for the
benefit of her seven, now orphan, children’. Subscribers inc.
Sir Eyre Coote, K.B M.P.[ex-governor of Jamaica]. Main list
followed by ‘Subscribers’ Names omitted in the Alphabetical
Order’.

(80)The Neville
Family; an Interesting Tale, Founded on Facts, by A Lady
[M. Despourrins], 3 vols, Cork (Printed for the Author, by
W. West & Co.), 1814.M152 F177 U1 S330 A89 T419. National Library of Ireland.Southern Ireland (Kinsale and Cork predominate).
Anglo-Irish aristocracy and gentry; post-holders and military
(62nd regiment); professional and clergy (19 Revd); fair proportion
of Mrs and Miss.
Military male leads; moral domestic melodrama, with some epistolary
elements; West Indies and Dublin frame plot.
Dedication to Lady Kinsale, signed M. Despourrins.
Further edn: London 1815 (Corvey—a reissue, without list).

1815

(81) The Life of a Recluse, [by
Ann? Gibson], 2 vols, Newark, (Printed and sold by M. Hage,
Stodman-Street: and may be had of all Country Booksellers;
and of Messrs. Longman, Hurst, and Co. Paternoster Row), 1815.M286 F119 S405 A22 T427. Harvard.
East Midlands.
Headed 11 (local) aristocrats; country gentry/clergy (alphabetically
first); Mr/Mrs/Miss (c. 75%).
First-person trials and tribulations.
‘Address to Subscribers’, signed A. Gibson, Screveton, near
Bingham, 1 Aug 1815. Last words present novel as ‘the Offspring
of Necessity’.
Further edn: London 1817 (Corvey—a reissue by A. K. Newman,
with list).

(82) Memoirs of the Villars Family;
or, the Philanthropist: A Novel, by Harriett Waller Weeks,
3 vols, London (Printed for the author, and published by C.
Chapple), 1815.M11 F60 U2 S73 A25 T98. Corvey.
London residential; Lincolnshire.
Respectable middle-rank female.
Moral Christian domestic.
Preface describes as ‘calculated to answer a more important
end than the dissipation of an idle hour’: ‘the cause of morality
was her principal aim’.

(83) System and No System; or, the Contrast,
by Maria Benson, author of Thoughts on Education, 1 vol.,
London (Printed for J. Hatchard, Bookseller to the Queen;
and sold by W. A. Justice, Howden), 1815.M42 F54 U1 S97 A29 T126. Aberdeen.
Yorkshire (Humberside, especially centred on Howden).
Headed Viscountess Pollington (12 copies); local gentry; respectable
middle class; clergy.
Moral evangelical domestic.
Dedication ‘to the Honourable Viscountess Pollington’. Preface
signed Ousefleet Grange. ‘List of Subscribers’ is headed by
an apology for ‘a small addition’ to the price owing to ‘a
considerable advance […] in the price of paper’. Subscribers
inc. ‘Rev. Legh Richmond, Rector of Turvey, Bedfordshire’.
Preface advises ‘young female readers’ not to look for ‘a
Novel’, ‘the work in question being destitute of all
the concomitants which usually grace the page of fiction’.

1816

(84) Angelion, or the Wizard in Elis:
A Romance, taken from the German [of Karl Friederich von
Benkowitz], by Maria de Geisweiler, 3 vols, London (Published
by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones; and Tabart and Co.), 1816.M72 F95 U8 S175 A69 T244. BL.
No locations, presumably most London.
Occasional aristocrat; middle ranks; London booksellers; German
connections.
Trans. of Angelion, der Zauberer in Elis (Berlin, 1798–1800).
Multiples bought by several leading publishing houses.

(85) Melmoth House: A Novel, by
Mrs. J. Jenner, 3 vols, London (Printed for the author, and
sold by G. Austin, Battle; sold also by Baldwin, Cradock and
Joy, No. 47; Walker and Edwards, No. 44 Paternoster Row, and
R. Nunn, No. 48 Great Queen Street), 1816.M92 F144 U1 S237 A21 T258. Corvey.
London residential; Sussex (Hastings, Battle); English provincial
(mostly southern).
Respectable middle class; naval and military.
Sentimental domestic; epistolary.
Introduction states author to have long passed her youth,
and ‘not likely to trespass again on their indulgence’. ‘List
of Subscribers’ at beginning of vol. 3. Subscribers inc. ‘Porter,
Miss. Cottage, Long Ditton’.

(86) Spanish Tales, translated from
Le Sage, and selected from other authors, by Mrs. Frederick
Layton, 3 vols, London (Printed for Hatchard; Barrett, Bath;
and Deighton, Cambridge), 1816.M69 F32 U3 S104 A5 T109. BL.
No locations.
Headed Princess Charlotte of Wales; aristocracy; clergy and
professional; 7 MPs.
Compilation (inset stories).
Half-title to vol. 1 states: ‘Published for the Benefit of
Distressed Clergymen with a large Family’. Dedication to the
Earl of Buchan, signed Jemima Layton. ‘List of Subscribers’
(78 names) and ‘List of Benefactors’ (26 listed) at beginning
of vol. 1: these are conflated above. Subscribers include
Thomas Johnes, Hannah More, William Roscoe, and Samuel Whitbread;
benefactors include Walter Scott.

(88) Maria, a Domestic Tale: Dedicated
by permission to Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte
of Saxe-Coburg, by Catherine St. George, 3 vols, London (Published
by J. Porter, Bookseller to Her Royal Highness the Princess
Charlotte), 1817.M80 F112 3U S195 A41 T236. Urbana.
No locations.
Headed by Princess Charlotte and Prince of Saxe-Coburg (husband);
followed by royal Dukes and Duchesses; respectable commoners.
Domestic sentimental moral; epistolary.
Dedication signed Catherine St. George, Douglas, Isle of Man,
4 June 1817.

(97)Leave of Absence, by the Late
Major [Thomas Ajax] Anderson, 1 vol., Cardiff (Printed by
R. Lloyd, and sold by W. Bird; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme,
Brown, and Green, London), 1824.M63 F13 S76 A92 T168. Urbana.Cardiff and environs; smattering of London and other towns/cities.
South Wales gentry; military and professional; industry and
navigational.
Military adventures and reminiscences.
Subscribers inc. Marquess of Bute, 15 copies.

(101) The History of a French Dagger;
an anecdote of the Revolution, translated from the French,
by Henry L[eopold] Dubois, late surgeon of Cavalry in the
Imperial Army, 2 vols, London (Printed for the author, by
G. Duckworth), 1828.M300 F21 U1 S322 A15 T337. BL.
London residential addresses (Chelsea; West End; City; Bloomsbury).
Medical (74 surgeons; 30 M.D.), military professional.
Picaresque anti-revolutionary satire.
Dedication ‘To My Subscribers’. The translated story [original
not discovered] depicts ‘in lively colours, such barbarous
transactions as were unfortunately too common during the days
of terror in Paris’ (p. iv).

(102) The Will; or, Twenty-One Years,
by Mrs. Ann Rolfe, author of “Miscellaneous Poems for a Winter’s
Evening;” “Choice And No Choice”, 1 vol., Saxmundham (Printed
and sold by L. Brightly), 1828.M165 F22 S187 A8 T195. Bodleian.
All with locations, mostly East Anglian towns (Ipswich, Saxmundham,
Bungay, Colchester etc.).
Middle class professional (5 booksellers, 3 surgeons, 3 solicitors,
1 schoolmaster, 1 confectioner!).
Moral domestic melodrama, high society characters.
Prefatory ‘Author, Reviewer, and Reader’, in the form of a
dialogue. The text is in small print, and in word length matches
a contemporary three-volumed novel.

CONTRIBUTOR
DETAILS Peter Garside is Chair of the Centre
for Editorial and Intertextual Research and Professor
of English Literature at Cardiff University. Recent publications
include The English Novel, 1770–1829: A Bibliographical
Survey of Prose Fiction Published in the British Isles
(OUP, 2000), general editor with James Raven and Rainer
Schöwerling; the Stirling/South Carolina Edition
of James Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions
of a Justified Sinner (EUP, 2001; paperback 2002);
and Authorship, Commerce, and the Public: Scenes of
Writing, 1750–1820 (Palgrave, 2002).
The matter contained within this
article provides bibliographical information based on
independent personal research by the contributor, and
as such has not been subject to the peer-review process.